What Makes Us Human
by Escilea
Summary: 22 human traits, and Bill must experience them all in order to return to his original form. Will he succeed or will he be forever stuck as a human?
1. Pain

The man fell to his knees, yelping as a sharp pain coursed throughout his lanky body. He bit his lip and flopped onto his side, curling up into the fetal position.

He had never felt anything like this before...

His legs trembled uncontrollably as a small puddle of blood formed around him. He gasped and cautiously held out a shaking hand, touching the red foreign liquid. A frown played on his lips when he realized that he was, what mortals called, bleeding.

He groaned in irritation, trying to stand back up on wobbly knees. Unfortunately this failed, as he came crashing back down to the earth.

"Damn it! This is so unfair!" the man exclaimed in frustration, slapping his palms on the ground than wincing slightly at the impact.

He half dragged-half crawled on over to a nearby bush. The sun was quickly setting, and he needed somewhere to hide out so that curious animals wouldn't try and eat his guts out. Wait, did animals even do that...?

"Oh thanks a lot cousin, not only do you take away my powers, but you take away my knowledge! I swear, when I get back to my normal form, you are so dead."

He tried to reason with himself, telling himself that yelling and complaining was probably only going to make the situation ten times worse, but his short temper was getting the best of him.

"I can't believe this is happening..." the man in the tattered yellow t-shirt and black shorts whimpered, defeated.

He groaned, adjusting his eyepatch subconsciously. He lied back down on the hard compact soil, closing his good eye. He told himself that he'd deal with all of this tomorrow. Right now, he just needed to rest.

The man yawned, than drifted off into a deep slumber. Tomorrow was going to be interesting.

* * *

_"Little demon, now you know pain_

_One of the 22 emotions you have slain_

_If you happen to master the art of humanity_

_Than maybe I will spare you your sanity_

_Little cousin, this will not be an easy task_

_You will face many obstacles and things that will set you off track_

_If you do somehow manage to survive_

_Than I will surely keep you alive"_


	2. Fear

_Fear_

Bill's good eye snapped open as he felt a sudden weightlessness in his body. He flailed in the air frantically as a familiar female figure floated beside him. She smiled, her crooked yellow teeth poking out.

"P-put me down Elvyra!" Bill screamed in agitation, his human limbs flopping around uselessly. The demon glared menacingly at Elvyra, but this only seemed to make her laugh.

"Oh, you are so cute when you make that face!" Elvyra giggled, ruffling the demon's blonde hair. Bill frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. Seeing that he wasn't nearly as elated as she was, Elvyra's smile faded.

"Dearest cousin, I am doing this for your own good. You may think of this as a nuisance, but you soon shall see my reasoning," she explained, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

"Wait... A-are you not going to turn me back?" the demon asked, his voice raising in pitch. Bill was startled at the realization and began trembling slightly.

Elvyra snapped her fingers and Bill fell back down to the earth. Elvyra floated over to him, placing a delicate finger under the demon's chin. Bill felt sick to his stomach.

Is Elvyra going to kill me, he thought to himself, panicking.

The female snapped her fingers once more, and almost instantly, a dusty scroll appeared, hovering beside her fragile frame. She smirked, handing the piece of paper to her little cousin.

Bill unrolled the piece of paper in an instant and gasped at what he saw. There were a whole bunch of random emotions listed, and one of them was crossed out in red.

"What the heck? I-I don't get it?" he groaned in frustration, his eyes scanning the page relentlessly.

"You will in time, dearie," she giggled mischievously. "Until than, I will be watching you..."

"Hey, that's my line! And where do you think you're going? C-come back here! I-I can't even walk for crying out loud!" Bill shouted hysterically at the ever fading female figure. "Y-you can't just leave me here to die! Wait, come back!"

But alas, it was too late. As soon as she had come, she had gone.

Bill was absolutely mortified.

"How could she do this to me?" he muttered, wiping his tears away. "H-how could she leave me all alone... What am I going to do? I can't even walk!"

He pulled his knees protectively to his chest and let the tears flow.

"I-I'm going to die alone!" he shouted to nobody in particular. "T-this is how it's all going to end..."

* * *

"...Excuse me mister, but are you okay?" a soft voice asked. The sun had just risen, casting an orange-yellow glow on the forest and all its inhabitants.

Bill groaned, sitting up and literally screaming when he saw the familiar 12 year old twins, standing just above him.

"Oh my gosh Dipper! He's bleeding blood! We gotta help him!" Mabel exclaimed while Dipper scanned the injured male. Something seemed familiar about him... And that was not a good thing.

Mabel crouched down next to the demon, holding up 3 fingers.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" she asked slowly. Dipper groaned at his sister's weird tactic.

"Mabel, he's not blind; he just has a few scratches."

Bill looked from Mabel to Dipper, a look of worry playing on his facial features. Would they leave him to die just like his cousin had?

Mabel held out her hand for him to take. Bill gladly accepted this kind gesture, standing shakily on his two feet.

She smiled and her twin brother sighed.

"Alright, alright, we'll take him back to the shack to get fixed up. After that though, he'd better leave," Dipper stated.

The demon kept himself composed, but was actually squealing like a pig internally.

As they stumbled back through the forest, Mabel basically dragging the demon the whole time, Bill couldn't help but smile slightly. Yes, things were really looking up for the dream demon.

Unfortunately though, things would not stay this way...


End file.
